Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Game 52: Boston at Toronto pregame

Casey Janssen rolled his eyes and laughed a little on Friday night. The reason? Someone brought up the fact that when he struck out Boston’s Kevin Youkilis in the seventh inning, that was Janssen’s first strikeout since returning to the Jays — only took 12.1 innings.

“Geez. I didn’t think I was evergoing to get one,” Janssen said with a smile. “My game is pitch to contact. It was nice to get those at the end, but I still have to pitch my game.”

For those of you who were following my in-game updates on Twitter, I mentioned that Janssen has been taking pitching to contact to new heights since coming back to the rotation. In his two outings, Janssen has thrown 186 pitches, including 117 for strikes. Among all those tosses, he’s only created seven missed swings.

Along the way, Janssen has allowed 19 hits over 13 innings with two strikeouts and two walks.

I stopped over by Janssen’s locker this morning to chat with him some about his style. He’s never been a strikeout pitcher — I first covered the righty when he was with Class A Lansing in 2005, when I was still at Michigan State. Pitching to contact is his game, but he admits he needs to improve on his missed swings.

“I’d definitely like to get better,” Janssen said. “But, my game is more about missing barrels than missing bats.”

Why the low amount of missed swings? Well, for one, Janssen doesn’t boast a go-to “out pitch.” It varies based on the type of hitter, and how he reached the point in the at-bat when a strikeout is an option.

“A lot of my game depends how I get there,” Janssen said. “If I do something away, my out pitch might be an in pitch for that hitter, and vice versa. If I’m working in, maybe I can spin something down and away.”

Janssen has five pitches: four-seam fastball, cutter, changeup, curveball and slider. When he was in the bullpen (he served as the setup man in ’07 and had 39 Ks in 72.2 IP), Janssen didn’t use his change or curve as much. Now, he has a larger arsenal to work with and he’s still working on regaining the type of command he’d like to have.

Janssen said that his cutter might be more of an out pitch against left-handed hitters, while he uses it more to create weak contact against righties. With a right-hander in the batter’s box, Janssen might turn to the slider to get a strikeout, whereas it is used more for weak contact against lefties. He’s also throwing more changeups to both lefties and righties.

Over his first two starts, Janssen said the main issue has he’s been “hitting too much white”. He hasn’t commanded his pitches like he wants to, and he’s fallen behind in counts as a result. When that happens, he can’t expand the strike zone, meaning hitters will inevitably make more contact.

PHOTO OF THE NIGHT FROM FRIDAY:

Catcher Rod Barajas, after scoring from first base in the fifth

Said Barajas: “I didn’t slide, I fell. That was my legs giving out on me. I had nothing left. If I had to run 10 more feet, the paramedics would’ve been out there giving me mouth to mouth. I hit the wall. Fortunately, it was enough to get me over the plate.”

Like this:

Related

2 Comments

Great game last night and a great photo. I had a good angle of Rod heading home and was laughing as he rounded thrd. Janssen had a nice outing, though it was really close from being a bad one. If Ortiz hit it a foot longer in the first they likely would’ve lost.

I don’t agree with keeping the bullpen as is. I would atleast bring up Accardo and send Camp or Wolfe down.

The reason they keep Camp and Wolfe is that they are long relievers, while Accardo is a one inning guy. If they give up on Ryan, or if Downs, League, or Carlson go on the DL, you will probably see Accardo.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.